mass of darkened foliage.
Heck had now brought Dana in from the dressing room. He was carrying her, but she was stirring slightly.
‘If we can get her walking,’ Lauren whispered, ‘it’ll save us a lot of trouble.’
‘Depends how long she’s been out for. It can take hours to recover from a stupor like this.’ He patted Dana’s face a couple of times, but she stayed under the influence.
Lauren shook her head. ‘I’ll go out first. You pass her up to me.’
Once she’d got out onto the bank, she crouched and listened. Their captors were congregated down at the far end, talking quietly. There were no other night sounds.
‘Okay,’ Lauren breathed.
With much struggling, Heck passed Dana’s comatose form through the aperture, at which point she moaned loudly.
They froze.
There was no response.
They continued at speed. Lauren threw Dana over her shoulder in a fireman’s lift, but remained crouched. From this angle, it was difficult to see over the top of the boat to where their captors were. What position were they actually in? Were their backs turned? These questions remained unanswered. It was going to be another big gamble. Heck slid up onto the bank beside her.
‘We’ve got to dash to the undergrowth,’ she whispered into his ear. ‘It’s only a couple of yards, but we’ll be fully exposed.’
He nodded, sweating hard. ‘You want me to take Dana?’
‘I’ve carried bigger, heavier fellas than your sister out of the battle-zone, Heck. Don’t worry, I can handle it.’
They counted down from five to one, before rising to their feet and scurrying towards the bushes. At first it seemed as though they’d made it. But when they entered the wood, it was impossible for leaves not to rustle and branches not to thresh.
‘Hey!’ came a gruff shout from behind. It sounded like Klim. ‘
Chapter 46
Dana was coming round and no longer a dead-weight, but carrying her between them wasn’t easy. When they broke out of the trees, they were at the foot of a long, sloping pasture, with the outline of a house on the ridge at the top. Shouting loudly, they stumbled uphill towards it. Heck and Lauren were both shoeless, the stones and twigs cutting and bruising their naked feet, but fear dulled the pain. They were halfway up when a shot rang out from behind. They ducked as what felt like a high-speed wasp whined past Heck’s ear.
‘Keep going,’ he gasped. ‘Just keep going.’
‘They can’t afford to let us live,’ Lauren said.
‘Don’t worry. We’re not the ones who are going to die here today.’
But even before they reached the house on the ridge, they saw skeletal spars where its roof should be, windows that were now empty sockets.
‘It’s derelict!’ Lauren wailed.
‘Just get inside. We’ll defend it somehow.’
It had once been a farmhouse, but now was a gutted shell. They managed to force open its front door, though the hall passage beyond was partly blocked by rubble. Not only had most of its roof collapsed, but a lot of the upper floor had come down as well. Lauren laid Dana on a mound of bricks, while Heck forced the door closed behind them and tried to wedge it with a fallen beam.
‘There’ll be a back door too,’ Lauren said.
‘Go and sort it!’
She hurried off, while he cast around for a weapon, though all he could initially find were lumps of useless rubbish.
‘Heck, there are windows in here!’ Lauren called.
Heck veered right into what had formerly been the living room. Again it was knee-deep in wreckage: smashed furniture, bottles, cans and a dirty mattress. Grass and thistles grew deep in the detritus. However, the windows were not as big a problem as he’d feared. The building being very old, they were small and set in deep embrasures, and most of them were barred.
‘These are easily defensible,’ he shouted back.
There was a grating of stone and a
Then he heard voices outside. They were low and mumbling, but he could discern the guttural tone of Shane Klim and the smoother, more modulated voice of the black guy, Trooper Kilmor as Silver had referred to him.
‘Any knives in there?’ Heck asked, as Lauren re-emerged from the kitchen.
‘Nothing. Not even any units. It’s been stripped.’
‘Okay, let’s keep it down for a sec, and see what they do.’
‘We know what they’re going to do — they’re going to try and get in!’
Stressed and weary, Lauren’s voice rose shrilly, and though he tried to shush her, it was too late. A Browning pistol was thrust in through one of the smaller windows, and fired indiscriminately around the living room. The reports were deafening, bullets careening from wall to wall. They dived and covered their heads, but out in the hall Dana began to moan with fear and confusion.
Heck scrambled to his feet, grabbed a plank, flattened himself against the wall and aimed a blow down at the hand. It was withdrawn at the last second, the plank meeting empty air.
‘Shit!’ he hissed.
There was a
‘What are the kitchen windows like?’ Heck asked.
‘Like these, small. But someone can get in if we don’t guard them.’
‘So what are you waiting for?’
She nodded and darted into the kitchen. He hurried back to the hall, where Dana was conscious but very groggy.
‘Mark … Mark, what’s happening …?’
‘We’re in a fix, Dana. But I promise I’m going to get you out of it.’
His eyes were attuning to the starlight, and he now saw a staircase. It led up to nowhere, its topmost section having fallen away with the upper floor. But beneath it there was a triangular door. He opened it on a narrow closet-space. Taking Dana’s hand, he lugged her unceremoniously to her feet.
‘Mark … what’re you doing?’
‘Get in here, quick.’
‘What? No, I won’t …’
‘Dana!’ he hissed into her ear. ‘There’s going to be a fight, and if you don’t find a hiding place you’ll be caught in the middle of it. And I can’t have that on my mind as well as everything else. Now for once do as you’re told.’
She might have been dazed, but she knew her brother well enough to know when he was being deadly serious. She nodded dumbly and, stooping down, allowed herself to be pushed into the under-stair cupboard. Heck closed the door quietly.
There was a sudden massive impact on the other side of the building.
‘Heck!’ he heard Lauren shout. ‘Heck!’
He scrambled back through the living room, and turned into the kitchen. Lauren had blocked the back door with lengths of wood, but a full-scale attack was now being launched on it. Heavy blows landed one after another, possibly with the flat of a foot, but no obvious progress was being made.
‘Surely he realises he can’t
